Nick Finegold, business development director, Altaimage
The problem with pre-packs is that a lot of innocent companies suffer as a result. The more transparency they can bring in the better, because pre-packs – like anything else – are open to abuse, so anything they can do to make it as difficult as possible for people to take advantage would be welcome. If a pre-pack sale really is the best option and it saves jobs, then that’s fine, but you have to weigh up the pros and cons and ultimately it could cost jobs elsewhere and that should be taken into consideration.

Nigel Cliffe, managing director, Cliffe Associates
Do we gather together in riots, or should we respectfully wait for government to act? Companies should be left to fail. The fact that the team of financial consultants acts before and after the notice of intent to file has to be at the core of the problem. Perhaps we should have a fixed minimum period of suspension of 30 days in which all information can be brought to light, all creditors and clients properly informed, leading to a competitive element of a sale. All parties would at least have some transparency and the black art of pre-packs would be a thing of the past. Likely, too, is that fewer would be brought back to life.

Peter Sargent, president, R3
The idea that pre-pack rules need to be strengthened comes from the Insolvency Service misreporting that over one-third of SIP 16 disclosure statements were not fully compliant when just 7% were deemed suitable for potential disciplinary action. We appreciate that creditors’ concerns surrounding pre-packs stem from the rapid speed of the sale of the company, but we are worried that the consultation will detract from the fact that pre-packs often provide the best chance of saving the businesses and jobs. R3 believes that some of the proposed changes to the system might only increase the cost of administration, thus diminishing the returns to creditors.

Andy Harrison, sales manager, First Class Post
It would appear that there is no legislation able to prevent certain unscrupulous company directors closing down a business, walking away and already being set up to start the day after – in some cases even before the administration is industry knowledge. The only course of action open to companies such as ours is to choose not to deal with the phoenix company – a stance that we have taken on a number of occasions and that has proved to be correct as a number of these resurrected businesses have failed within 18 months. At least we haven’t been hit the second time around.